LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Gemma 2 9B vs o4-mini

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Gemma 2 9B specs · o4-mini specs
Verdict by category
  • Priceo4-mini

    o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while Gemma 2 9B does not.

  • Context windowo4-mini

    o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K, 24.4× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • Modalitieso4-mini

    o4-mini supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Gemma 2 9B.

  • OpennessGemma 2 9B

    Gemma 2 9B ships open weights (Gemma License); o4-mini is API-only.

On balance o4-mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Gemma 2 9B's 1. o4-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while Gemma 2 9B does not. o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K, 24.4× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Gemma 2 9B handles text while o4-mini handles text, vision, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Gemma 2 9B ships open weights (Gemma License); o4-mini is API-only.

o4-mini is the newer of the two, released 10 months after Gemma 2 9B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Gemma 2 9B is usually picked for on device and edge deployment workloads, while o4-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGemma 2 9Bo4-mini
ProviderGoogleOpenAI
ReleasedJun 2024Apr 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision
Context window8.2K tokens200K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not published$1.10 / 1M tokens
Output · 1MPricing not published$4.40 / 1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff,2024-06
Open weightsYes (Gemma License)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $9.90
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $99.00
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $191

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Gemma 2 9BPricing unavailable
  • o4-mini$0.330

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Gemma 2 9Bo4-mini
  • MMLU71.3
  • GPQA,81.4
Pick Gemma 2 9B if

Gemma 2 9B fits when…

  • Strong 9B-class quality
  • Wide tooling
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Gemma License).
Pick o4-mini if

o4-mini fits when…

  • Strong reasoning at mid-tier price
  • Fast for a thinking model
  • Solid tool-use
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 8.2K for Gemma 2 9B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Don't want either?

Consider Gemini 3 Pro

Google's late-2025 flagship, set new benchmarks on long-context, vision, and reasoning at competitive pricing.

See Gemini 3 Pro specsGemma 2 9B vs Gemini 3 Proo4-mini vs Gemini 3 Pro

Frequently asked

  • Is Gemma 2 9B or o4-mini cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    o4-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 8.2K for Gemma 2 9B.
  • Is Gemma 2 9B or o4-mini better for coding?
    Both Gemma 2 9B and o4-mini are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Gemma 2 9B ships open weights (Gemma License). o4-mini is API-only.
  • When were Gemma 2 9B and o4-mini released?
    Gemma 2 9B was released by Google on 2024-06-27. o4-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-04-16.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.